A quartet of investigators
from the US Office of Paranormal Claims head up to Scarab
Mountain to the abandoned Bodega Bay Hotel to investigate
the events of PUPPET MASTER (we learn that the only
surviving psychic went insane and the hotel's previous owner
was mummified). The team consists of serious Carolyn
(Elizabeth Maclellan, CRASH AND BURN), her jerky brother
Patrick (Greg Webb, THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE), slinky Wanda
(Charlie Spradling, MERIDIAN), hunky Lance (Jeff Weston,
AMERICAN NINJA 2), and tabloid psychic Camille (Nita Talbot,
DAY OF THE LOCUST). While investigating the property,
Patrick comes across the open grave of puppet master Andre
Toulon (who killed himself to avoid capture by the Nazis who
were after his secret of giving life to inanimate objects)
and Camille immediately senses an evil presence. The first
murder leads to the team's discovery of Tunneler, a
drill-headed puppet that dissection reveals to be made up of
a series of gears but no motors or any other indication of
how it moves on its own. Camille's disappearance of another
member of the team coincides with the arrival of the MAD
LOVE-garbed Errique Chanee (Steve Welles, HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW
HOOKERS) who claims to have inherited the hotel but allows
the investigators to stay as his guests (so long as they
never enter his private quarters). It should come as no
surprise that Chanee (pronounced "Chaney", get it) is
actually Andre Toulon (resurrected when his puppets dig him
up and give him a dose of the life-giving Egyptian formula)
and he has plans for the remaining investigators including
Carolyn who resembles his late wife Elsa (MacClellan plays
her in a 1912 Egypt flashback in which Toulon is offered the
secret formula by a merchant [Ivan J. Rado, SUBSPECIES] with Lugosi/Karloff hypnotic eye spot lighting). Of course, his
plans are complicated when Camille's son Michael (Collin
Bernsen, DOUBLE TROUBLE) arrives to find his missing mother
(and become Carolyn's love interest).

After a dull set-up, PUPPET MASTER II parcels out its stalk
and kill set-pieces well enough between a less predictable
story that allows director David Allen (an accomplished stop
motion artist whose work appeared in THE THING,
THE HOWLING,
and THE HUNGER as well as a handful of producer Charles
Band's pre-Full Moon offerings) and Band can indulge in
references to Universal classic horrors as well as Band's
own producer filmography with nods to Stuart Gordon's DOLLS
and PUPPET MASTER director David Schmoeller's
TOURIST TRAP.
In addition to Richard Band's title theme from the original,
some matte paintings and miniatures of the hotel are also
recycled (although the interiors seem to be from a much
smaller although not uninteresting location from the
original's Bodega Bay hotel), and the photography of Thomas Denove (THE LAST HORROR FILM) often looks cheaper. Less
forgivable is the transformation of Toulon from William
Hickey's paternal puppeteer in the first film's prologue to
a villain no better than the last guy that earned his
comeuppance by exploiting and then mistreating the puppets
to his own end (although we can be thankful that the sequel
idea set up in the film's epilogue was abandoned in favor of
a prequel). Sage Allen (SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT) and
exploitation mainstay George "Buck" Flower (THEY LIVE) play
hillbilly farmers whose livestock are victimized by the
puppets before they themselves become victims. Two of Band's
children appear as extras in the Egypt flashback, and David DeCoteau (who would helm four entries in the PUPPET MASTER
series including the third installment) serves as producer
here.

NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.

ADDITION:
88 Films - Region FREE - Blu-ray -
October 12':

(Comments
are duplicated for the Blu-ray
of
Puppet Master 3.) The SD looks impressive
for that format but the 1080P is a typical advancement
in the expected areas of colors (skin tones), depth and
detail. Some nice textured grain shows through hinting
at noise but generally the image quality offers sharp
visuals with some pleasing depth. Colors - notably reds,
gets a shade richer and tighter in HD. It is in the
1.78:1 aspect ratio. The lossless 2.0 channel audio had
no flaws and supported the film well with effects
bringing forth some substantial depth. Eric describes
the extras below which are duplicated on both disc
formats. Some of the Blu-ray
supplement videos are in 1080P.

Both Puppet Master 2 + 3 are a little too
gruesome for my tastes but there is some keen revenge
aspects that are appealing. I think these are pretty
cheesy horrors but often that is what you might be
looking for. The single-layered transfers are not
technically dynamic but offer solid a/v for a late
Friday night in the Home theater.

-Gary
W. Tooze

***

ABOUT THE EXTRAS:
Producer Charles Band goes solo for this commentary, and seems
much more at ease than on the commentary for the first film.
Although he is credited with the story, he talks more about
GHOULIES, his first self-distributed film through Empire
Pictures (which is actually quite interesting since MGM didn't
bother to engage him or anyone else to do a commentary for their
DVD), but he does pause for the feature's set-pieces, and to
admire David Allen's stop-motion effects (he mentions that he
hopes to finish up PRIMEVILS - the production Allen was working
on when he died - with Allen's associate Chris Endicott).

The vintage VideoZone featurette gives all of the plot turns
away (however, the VideoZones always appeared after the feature
on the original VHS and LD releases). The making-of actually
runs just under twelve minutes, but it also includes a
"Director's Spotlight" with Stuart Gordon discussing
THE PIT ANDTHE PENDULUM as well as trailers for that film, the original
PUPPET MASTER, SHADOWZONE, MERIDIAN, and CRASH AND BURN as well
as a merchandising segment hosted by Charlie Spradling (who
appears in PUPPET MASTER II). Also included are some more Full
Moon merchandising commercials, the film's trailer, and trailers
for other Full Moon titles (note that some trailers differ on
the Blu-Ray edition).